I fell into writing about health shortly after grad school, where I realized I didn't want to work in a lab for the rest of my life! My areas of interest are the brain and behavior, as well as what influences the decisions we make about our health, and how the media helps and hinders people's understanding of health issues. As an undergraduate, I studied English Literature and Biopsychology at Vassar College, and got my PhD in Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at CUNY's Graduate Center in New York City, where I grew up and live now. My day job is as Associate Editor with the health website, TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com. My work has appeared in several other publications, including TheAtlantic.com and YogaGlo.com, and I'm particularly excited to join the Forbes health team. Email me at alicegwalton [at] gmail [dot] com .

Erectile dysfunction (ED) may not be men’s favorite subject, but a new study shows why it’s one health concern that probably shouldn’t be swept under the, er, rug. Earlier evidence has shown ED to be linked to heart problems, which is a logical connection, since the heart and penis alike rely on a healthy blood flow. If one area’s supply is faulty, it makes sense that the other’s might be, too. But what’s new about the current study is that it teases out the relative risk levels for men experiencing mild, moderate, or severe ED. The study finds that even mild ED can increase one’s risk of a heart problem, and even of death.

The new Australian study tracked 95,000 men who were enrolled in the 40 and Up Study for up to three years. The men answered all kinds of questions about their health and habits. By the end of the study period, over 7,800 of the men had been admitted to the hospital for some sort of heart-related problem, and just over 2,300 had died.

The men with ED had a greater risk of all kinds of heart problems, like heart failure, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, ischemic heart disease, and “other” cardiovascular disease. This was true whether the men had previous heart problems or not. For example, men with severe ED had over a 60% greater chance of having any kind of cardiovascular disease if they’d had heart problems in the past; even if they had a clean heart record, these men still had a 35% increased risk of developing a heart problem if they had severe ED.

And men with ED of any severity – mild, moderate, or severe – also had a greater risk of dying from any cause, whether they’d had heart trouble in the past or not.

Interestingly, men with even mild ED had a greater risk of certain kinds of heart problems, and of early death, than men without. Taken together, these results all suggest that there’s a consistent link between ED and heart disease, even when all other variables (smoking, weight, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and the like) are held constant.

“These results tell us that every man who is suffering from any degree of erectile dysfunction should be seeking medical assistance as early as possible and also insisting on a heart health check by their GP at the same time,” said Rob Grenfell, the Cardiovascular Health Director of Australia’s Heart Foundation. Rather than simply treating the ED with one of the popular ED meds, looking deeper into what else might be going on to underlie it is probably a very good idea.

There’s no evidence that ED would cause heart problems or vice versa – just that the two variables are connected, likely due to problems in the vasculature that are linked to both (like atherosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction). But ED might be an important “biomarker” for heart disease, and the experts say that men should treat it as an indicator that it’s time to see a doctor, especially since so many cases of early heart disease are undiagnosed.

“This is the ‘canary in the trousers’ for men across the country,” Grenfell told Australia’s ABC. “[I]f you have erection issues, it’s a warning that you may also have issues with your heart. I urge any man suffering an erection difficulty to see their doctor to request a heart health check to measure their likelihood for having a heart attack in the next five years.”

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Could you please either hire a man to cover men’s health topics, or at least hire a woman who would treat the topic of men’s health as delicately and sensitively as she would cover a similar topic on women’s health. The title of this piece, as well as the intro, is insensitive and tactless.

I should add that I don’t have this particular health problem (yet anyway), but I would say to the author – how would you feel if a man treated a women’s health issue with such tongue-in-cheek humor? Would you laugh? This isn’t funniest home videos with it’s inevitable groin-kicking sequence. This is supposed to be a serious article covering a health issue. Or is it?

I think the subject is covered quite sensitively here — if you read the entire article you’ll see an objective look at what is an interesting an important study, as I stressed in the piece. Yes, I included researcher’s little joke in the title, but I think the coverage of the study is actually quite serious, as I made sure to include all the relevant findings and caveats. Sorry you found it insensitive. The ED-CVD connection is obviously important, and hopefully more doctors will treat ED as the biomarker it seems to be.

Don’t worry about it. What an amazing world of crybabies out there. I find shootings and building collapses to be disturbing, yes, but this heads-up health article, enjoy writing it any way you please. It was informative.

Yeah, any information on this topic is good, if not, just to hightlight and ‘expose’ all health related issues. Thank You for your writeup. I am keeping up with regular cardivascular related appointments, working out and eating right and am doing great. However, one day, my body will die a physical death, but My Soul will live forever without all of the problems of the physical realm.

‘Canary In The Trousers’ – Almost spit my coffee out, instead choked on it I laughed so hard. As usual, Dr. Walton has written an excellent, meaningful article. Her use of the written word makes her one of the premier Forbes writers.